Eleven years came and went, and subscriptions giveaway!

[Lovell]

Came from i3xbeta and never left, it's been amazing to see how far Neowin has come, how it's evolved from a windows site to a tech site and then to a community, how it survived the flame wars, and keeps getting better.

[PGHammer]

I've been so tied up in the upgrade, that could have gone smoother in my opinion, that I completely missed making a post for October 1st which marked eleven years of Neowin!

We started our upgrade on Sunday 25th of September, and the forums were mostly offline for the two days that followed. And after that, as you may know, many basic forum features didn't work properly, it has literally taken us this long up until this week to sort out those issues, and we still have a list of things that need doing (like syncing main page avatars with the forum ones, among others).

Anyway, what has happened in the last year then?

Tom Warren, who had been here almost from the start went off to launch his own website: winrumors.com on the 25th of October last year, and has done really well since. I always knew he'd do well, and I wish him all the best with that venture, he seems to have made a huge impact already, like he did here at Neowin for the nine years previous.

Tim Kimberl (Timan) stepped down from the developer team, at the end of last month after nine years of making Neowin look great, but he did agree to help us with the upgrade and support Pegasus, which he has done, only yesterday he applied a fix for the main page, so I'm really glad he's still available for those things.

It's not all bad though,

We hired John Callaham back in May to write for Neowin full time, and he has managed to double the amount of content for our main page, starting of with an emphasis on gaming, which is the area he comes from, but that has steadily progressed to tech news and even a couple of editorials that have been very good to read.

The feedback from that decision has been mostly positive, so I feel we're moving in the right direction on that front

And last but not least, our staff team.

In all the years of doing Neowin, I have had to deal mostly with volunteer staff, but never has there been a time quite like the last year that I really feel I'm dealing more and more with professionals, so kudos to the whole staff team for that and making my life bearable!

I say this every year, but we wouldn't be where we are today if not for the support of our members and staff, so give yourselves a big pat on the back, you deserve it, and I can only hope the same level of support continues well into the 2010's and beyond.

Now for a giveaway

Ten Tier 2 subscriptions are up for grabs, these are for new members that have registered here on Neowin after October 1st 2011.

To qualify:

• You must have more than ten posts, that are on topic and helpful (by Oct 23rd when the draw is made)
  
• You must enter your intent to take part in the draw in this topic
  

And also another ten Tier 2 subscriptions for current members who joined before October 1st 2011.

There will be a random draw of ten people who replied to this topic with their own memories of their time here, or how you found Neowin for example, everyone can participate, current subscribers (if drawn) will have their subscription upgraded from Tier 1 to Tier 2 and extended for another year, members will get a year Tier 2, which is ad free and adds a "special" forum among other enhancements for your experience here.

The draw will be made on Sunday October 23rd, and winners announced here.

Thanks again everyone, on behalf of the whole team we appreciate it.

I'm far from one of the *oldest heads*, though I have been around since 2003.

The discussions have gotten spirited, have occaisionally gotten out of control - however, Neowin is never NEVER dull! (Not even in the Apple forums.)

Congratulations on eleven wonderful years!

[Tjcool007]

Just dropping in to congratulate the site Admins for creating and maintaining a giant forum. It's not always easy (I know :p), but you seem to do an excellent job.

As for why I joined myself, hmm, I guess because I'm into IT, and this is a great site for people like me. As you can see it's mostly lurking I do though :|

But anyway, good luck to everyone entering the draw. :)

[Soham]

Wow guys I would buy a subscription soon because I have been in this for 8 years now.

[Pow]

I used to go onto a MSNChat site called TG007. They used to be involved in mIRC Scripting and other tech news. I always saw Neowin being quoted as a source in their news posts so I thought, why not go check it out! I lurked for ages until I finally decided to register to do a few posts here and there. I go on neowin pretty much instantly as soon as I open my browser. That's how much I enjoy the forum :p

[ericnkatz]

I want to win!

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Wow guys I would buy a subscription soon because I have been in this for 8 years now.

Go for it:

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?app=subscriptions

[Mazhar]

I have been with Neowin for 5 years (since 2006). Then it became one of my favorites among tech news websites. I have also made few friends here. I just want to say that Neowin is awesome! Thank you very much.

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

Found the place long before I signed up, Kept looking up how to repair things and I always every single time ended up on Neowin, So eventually when the gamefaq forum became to much of a childish place for me moved full time to posting and trolling around Neowin. Been here ever since

[Draconian Guppy]

Congrandz neobond and neowin, I won already (err was probably finger pointed :p ) in a previous giveaway! So just giving thanks. Neowin always has 99.9% of the answers for anything I ask and if not, I get pointed where too. The people here, even teh trolls seem a heck of a lot nicer than anywhere else.

Let's hear it for another 11 years!!!

[De.Bug]

I heard about Neowin from a friend something like a year ago. I was looking for a good tech news site at the time because I wasn't really interested in most news, only the tech variation. Anyway I read the site for a few days and really like the articles even if they were late (I didn't notice). I signed up then, and for a while I was obsessed with posting in the forums, but now I usually just read articles unless I see something interesting in the real world news section of the forums. I hope you don't disqualify me for winning that Auslogistics Boost Pro contest a few days ago. Anyway I love Neowin and I would love to win the contest.

[XionUK]

Yeah, count me in - been lurking a long long time! lol

[Pygmy_Hippo]

I finally got round to setting up a profile in 2003, but had been lurking for a good while before then, so without realising I was probably reading straight from the start! (not that you'd notice it from my post count - probably for the best as I seem to be a bit of thread-killer!)

Found Neowin via links from Warp2Search which used to be my homepage, wasn't long before I realised that I was spending more time here than at Warp, so from that moment on Neowin has been my homepage. Now I feel old :D

[Anibal P]

I found Neowin when looking for info on Windows XP, lurked a bit, realized the forums where the best place to get help, registered and stayed since.

[TheReaperMan]

Well, I have been a on neowin for years. I rember years ago when the site was having major issues with hosting and it did look like at the time neowin would fold. I spoke to neobond via chat about it at the time.

But I am glad its still ive and ticking today and getting better all the time. I do miss all the fun from back when longhorn was around as all the leaks and info was great.

[MS Bob 11]

I came across the Neowin a long time ago but always came here only for news and never bothered to check out the forums. Now I do.

[Jax]

sub would be awesome!

[BoneyardBrew Member]

I'm definitely not a veteran here like some others, but in the short time I've been a part of this community I've really enjoyed myself. Neowin is the only forum I visit on a daily basis and I can thank the community for that.

Neowin is definitely a great place to be with tons of people ready to help you at any given moment.

[bdsams Veteran]

I can haz win too?

[T1Famous]

I was searching for just a tech and gadget website, I came across Neowin and have never looked back!

[Lingwo]

Amazing to think how long i've been here. I don't see myself not visiting here though.

It is actually compared to some forums a quite sensible community.

I don't post as often as some people, i like to think most of my comments are on topic and interesting though.

[Gaffney]

I joined Neowin in 2009 and I just looked around the forums for windows resources but then I started joining in with the community and now I'm here.

[DKAngel]

i joined mainly because of the windows news =] im pretty sure i joined b4 i did but was lost when something crashed, oh back 10+ years ago, i cant rember but have had fun here even if it took me 10 years to get 1000 posts =D

[jaxius]

sub would be awesomeness!

[Emil Valsson]

I first joined Neowin to read news about various software news and to get help on the forums. Since I joined I havent be active regarding posting but I come here every day to read news and posts.